Live at Pompeii
Directed by Adrian Maben
Originally Released in 1974
Vestron Music Video, 1984 (Initial VHS Release)
PMV Video, 1989 (Reissued VHS)
Universal Studios, 2001 (VCD)
Studio Portions Filmed at Abbey Road Studios, 1972
Live Portions Filmed in Pompeii, Italy : October 4-7, 1971

As essential to any Pink Floyd video collection as a good-quality copy of 'Video Anthology Volume 1' and '2,' 'Live At Pompeii' captures the band just before their quantum leap forward from the level of underground cult favorite to that of world-bestriding rock colossus. The basic setup of the movie (for those who don't know) is a series of performances recorded in an empty amphitheater in Pompeii crudely stitched together with a handful of interview / "behind-the-scenes" segments with the band at Abbey Road studios recording 'Dark Side Of The Moon' sometime in 1972. While it could argued that the Abbey Road footage breaks up the powerful atmosphere created by the band performing live, it must be also be said that this studio material makes 'Live At Pompeii' an absolute hoot to sit through and is the source of countless in-jokes among hardcore fans.

It's difficult to reconcile the worldly wisdom and highly cultured manners of modern-day Roger Waters and David Gilmour with their hilariously naive 1971 selves. Pontificating from somewhere beneath the seat of his bell bottoms over just about any "weighty" subject matter under the sun (whether it be about the role of electronics in the band, audio defects in vinyl pressings of 'Obscured By Clouds,' or the much ballyhooed "great economic collapse"), Waters is a scream and a half when the music stops. Gilmour is no less amusing during his interview spots, coming off as little more than a blissfully stoned hippie, while Mason fights the never-ending battle for a slice of pie without crust. Richard Wright (true to form) just smokes, smiles, and plays the piano.

Of course, the *real* selling point to 'Live At Pompeii' is the "concert" itself, which is beautifully paced and rarely anything less than engrossing to watch. Particularly memorable bits include the drawn-out, near-imperceptible zooming in towards the band from high above the amphitheater during the opening minutes of "Echoes" (this shot is then reversed during the closing minutes), the slow-building fade-up and fade-down of a stunning "Careful With That Axe Eugene" (which also counterpoints Waters' blood-chilling inhaled shrieks with images of relentlessly flowing lava and close-ups of strange, disturbing frescoes), and the iconic shots of Waters smacking a gong with the sun directly behind him during "A Saucerful Of Secrets." Also remarkable is the slow-burning "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun," which starts off a bit shaky with that weirdly-lit opening shot of Roger Waters banging on the omnipresent gong that looks like it was taken from a Golan-Globus production (one almost expects to hear some booming voice intoning "BRING FORTH THE VIRGIN" or something while this is happening).

Now for the obligatory cheap shots ...

* There are WAY too many shots of the band stumbling about on a godforsaken landscape that look like trailer footage for 'The Monkees Go To Mars'

* There is something is very odd-looking about David Gilmour's teeth but I'll be damned if I can articulate exactly what it is (Rick Wright's, on the other hand...yowch)

Mean-spirited fun aside, the movie's only real weak point is "One Of These Days," which is kind of ironic because this is by some distance the loudest, most "rocking" song in the film. However, despite the galloping bass lines and propulsive guitar textures, the song kinda sits there; feebly kicking it's legs for six minutes of screen time. Most of the blame for this lies at the feet of Director Adrian Maben, who decides to visually center the entire song on Nick Mason's drum playing with only the odd cutaway to Dave Gilmour's face as he looks down at his guitar to give us anything different to look at. Maben tries valiantly to keep us interested by flashing some oh-so-early-1970s rows of moving images across the screen, and while this must have been pretty rawkin' to look at in a movie theater, it works far less successfully on a television screen. The song's midsection (which is nothing but Mason moving in extremely slow motion and some still shots of the band's sound crew) is a complete wash -- and that ending freeze frame shot is two steps shy of embarrassing. If there is one part of the movie I'd like to see excised and replaced (with, say, "Atom Heart Mother" or "Obscured By Clouds / When You're In"), it'd be this one.

Finally, a few words about "Mademoiselle Nobs" - is watching this really as embarrassing to watch as sitting through that video snippet of "It Would Be So Nice" from the 'Anthology' series? In my opinion, the answer is "no," for two reasons...

1. This song was done in obvious jest, while "It Would Be So Nice" was an honest attempt at another hit single.

2. When you really think about it, this is a fascinating precursor of things to come (after all, Nobs' mournful vocals presage the middle sections of the 'The Wall' album by 8 full years and the entire 'Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking' song cycle by nearly 13).

Anyway, I think it could be safely said that anyone who is into Pink Floyd and has not yet seen this film is truly missing out. Definitely one of the essentials.

'Echoes (Part 1)'	'A Saucerful of Secrets'	Crustless Pie Debacle
'One of These Days'	'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'	In the Studio